“And broken to pieces. Oh, boys, Jack and Hugo must have been lost in the breaking ice!”
CHAPTER XX.
CAST AWAY IN THE COLD.
For some moments Will, Tom and Willis stood gazing blankly down at the broken pieces of the sled and at the bleak and cheerless scene about them.
Not until that moment did they realize fully the loneliness and peril of their position.
There was no indication of the presence of any human beings except themselves in the vicinity.
The Arctic had either been crushed in the ice or had drifted away.
Those of the crew who had been chasing the bear had sailed with the ship or been lost in the breaking of the ice.
Jack and Hugo, there seemed to be no doubt, had perished in striving to regain the ship or fly before the advancing sea of ice and snow.
They were alone, separated from all of their kind, cast away in the cold.